Today, most of the education industry is a scam, and films like “Bad Education” prove that very well. The scammers mainly target college students because they are unknown to the outer world and get convinced easily.
So, stealing from them has become a new trend for scammers.
Often, such fraudsters threaten students that they will leak their personal information on the internet unless they pay a significant amount of money.
Institutions like Michigan State University, the University of California, and Utah University have already faced this situation and were compelled to pay a large amount of ransom.
In this blog, I’m going to tell you about a few ways scammers use to target students and how students can avoid these situations.
If you want to know all of them, continue reading the blog.
Table of Contents
What are the Different Education Scams?
Here is a list of fraudulent activities for college students. Let’s have a look.
1. Scholarship Scams
Students get frequent calls and SMS with scammed links about receiving scholarships even if they never applied. Somehow they convinced students and collected the bank-related information to credit the scholarship money.
This process has become very common today.
It may seem significantly less harmful when an organization wants to pay students a lump sum, but in this way, the scammers are taking your banking information.
You should understand one thing no one will pay you for free. So, be cautious when sharing your financial information with someone. If you can’t decide what to do on your own, take help from your friends or families.
2. Fraudulent Students Loans
It has become a widespread event today. Scammers offer a huge amount of student loans and promise a very low amount of EMIs. So naturally, students get trapped and share their financial details. Often these scammers provide their bank account details for receiving the EMIs, and students don’t understand why their loan is still due after paying various installments.
In this way, many students have lost millions.
That’s why you need to be careful and never accept this kind of offer.
3. Malware Attacks
After the digital revolution, this type of scam is snowballing. Often students come to class with their personal laptops and connect with a college or public Wi-Fi. Naturally, these connections are not secured, and scammers use this way to steal information for financial gain. According to a study in 2020, the academic industry is the top victim of cybercrime.
4. Imposter Scams
It is a unique way that scammers convince students to steal money from them by pretending to be another person. Students get calls, and someone asks them to immediately clear their due tuition fees or other payments unless the institution suspends them.
Students get confused and pay instantly in fear.
So, how can one avoid this situation?
Students should hang up the phone immediately and place a complaint against the number holder to students aid organizations.
5. Social Media Scams
Most students are hooked to smartphones and social media. According to consumer research, in 2021, 98% of students will use social media. Unfortunately, this is an excellent opportunity for scammers to steal students’ personal information.
Scammers create fake university or college pages to steal student names, phone numbers, and email addresses. It can seriously affect students. Experts at research paper writing services agree with this issue.
Students can easily avoid this situation if they stay alert. Students should accept only those “friend requests” they know and stay within limits when sharing personal information online. These simple precautions can save them from scammers.
6. Housing Scams
Often, in college, students put their first step toward living away from home. They need to find an apartment if they don’t get a chance to stay in a college hostel.
Scammers try to make use of these situations. In this digitalized era, everything you can search and find online. So, these scammers post for housing rent and try to convince people to pay advance rent and deposits before letting them see any apartment. For more details read My Assignment Help Reviews
Naturally, students are in a hurry to settle down. So, they compel to catch the fake offer, and at the time of moving in, they often discover that the person they talked with and paid the money for doesn’t even own the apartment or has no connection with it. So, they become the victim of a great scam.
That’s why you need to become very careful when searching for an apartment and handling money. You should check the apartment first. It would be best if you could talk with the neighbours and check the papers before paying any money.
7. Employment Scams
According to various surveys by ITRC, scammers try to steal students’ personal information by providing tempting job offers. So, a student’s physical safety to money gets under criminal supervision, which is a serious condition. Assignment expert agree with this.
So, how do you understand that you are under employment scams?
- If you get offers that are too good to be true
- If you get emails from suspicious sources
- If you asked to provide personal and banking information
- If you are being called for an interview in any unusual place
So, these are the red flag situation. If you face any of these, you should understand that it’s a scam and avoid it immediately.
Final Thoughts,
Now you know the problems and the solutions too. There are lots of student aid websites where you can submit your complaint against fraudulent activities. So, if you face any red-flagged situation, take drastic steps immediately.
About the Author
Denny Martin is a professional academic writer at one of the most reliable websites, essay.reviews. He has years of expertise in creating highly engaging essays, assignments, research papers, thesis, case studies and other academic papers for students.
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